Playoff Awards

This week I will give my playoff awards. These are based on the whole playoffs, not just one series.

AL Awards:

AL Playoff MVP: Mike Lowell: .353 AVG, 2 HR, 15 RBI, .410 OBP: He was the World Series MVP, has a batting average over .350 and 15 RBI.
Runner-up: Kevin Youkilis
Also should be mentioned: Jacoby Ellsbury

AL Playoff Cy Young: Josh Beckett: 4-0, 1.20 ERA, 35 K, 30 IP: Josh Beckett tied the best playoff record ever, had more strike-outs than innings and a 1.20 ERA.
Runner-up: Curt Schilling
Also should be mentioned: Paul Byrd

AL Manager of the Playoffs: Terry Francona: The Red Sox won the World Series.
Runner-up: Eric Wedge

NL Awards:

NL Playoff MVP: Matt Holliday: .289 AVG, 5 HR, 10 RBI, .319 OBP: Nobody really dominated in hitting in the NL playoffs, but Matt Holliday’s 5 home runs barely puts him ahead of Kaz Matsui. Stephen Drew probably did better but his team didn’t get as far.
Runner-up: Kaz Matsui
Also should be mentioned: Stephen Drew

NL Playoff Cy Young: Ubaldo Jimenez: 0-1, 2.25 ERA, 13 K, 16 IP: He was 0-1, but he had a 2.25 ERA, the best of any starter that made it out of the divisional series.
Runner-up: Doug Davis
Also should be mentioned: Brandon Webb

NL Manager of the Playoffs: Clint Hurdle: The Rockies won the NL pennant.
Runner-up: Bob Melvin

The Red Sox dominated the World Series winning by a total score of 29-10. That’s an average score of 7.25-2.5 and an average deficit of 4.75. The Red Sox have won the World Series 2 times in the past 4 years, both series were sweeps.

3 of the past 4 World Series have been sweeps, the other one went to 5 games. The last time there was a seven game World Series was in 2002. There hasn’t been a World Series MVP with a last name starting with the letter L since Mickey Lolich in 1968. But it’s only been since ’04 when someone has won the World Series MVP with a first name starting with the letter M and that was Manny Ramirez. The Rockies have one of the five youngest-average starting pitching rotation in the World Series with an average age of 25.8.

Other MLB notes: Jose Guillen is a free agent. The Mariners didn’t pick up his contract. The Yankees picked up the $16 million contract on Bobby Abreu. The Rangers are tied for the 7th least amount of free agents.

Results of last week’s poll:
Who do you think is the best GM out of the last 3 Ranger GMs?
Doug Melvin – 75%
Jon Daniels – 18%
John Hart – 7%

Come back next week for a free agent analysis.